A New Beginning
by TWERDYWERDY
Summary: 5 years later. Renesmee grows up and her parents decide to send her to school and she realised what it means to be half-HUMAN. She meets a strange boy.8 chapters up. next chapter :coming to terms jacob's pov
1. Renesmee

**Renesmee.**

I turned up the volume on my earphones to distract me so I wouldn't accidentally send my negative thoughts to everyone else in the car. "We're here!" I heard Emmett exclaim (intentionally right into my right ear.) I groaned. "Aww come on please don't make me do this momma, daddy" I pleaded for the millionth time. My mother spun around to face me,

"Renesmee darling(she was probably the only one who still called me that) instead of just sitting at home we think you should go out there and make some friends"

"But momma I already have friends" I protested referring to my w_arewolf/shapeshifter_ friends and pointing to Jacob whose lap I was sitting on.

"I meant human" she added her perfect lips curling into a smirk.

"Come on it'll be fun!" Emmett interrupted ruffling my hair until I was sure every single strand of my hair was out of place.

"EM!" I scolded.

"You'll just be like any ordinary new girl at school" my mother added ignoring Emmett's bellowing laughter.

"Yeah escorted in a shiny black Ferrari" I mumbled under my breath. But naturally, every one of them heard me and chuckled much to my annoyance.

In a final resort, I concentrated an image of myself massacring every single one of the students in school to my dad.

"Nice try" he finally spoke in his velvety smooth voice. Still chuckling he added, reading my thoughts, "You know we would come with you if we could but our names are in the records and we supposedly graduated 5 years ago. There are probably some teachers who are still teaching here anyway."

I sighed in defeat and turned to Jacob who squeezed my had and gave me a quick good-luck peck on the cheek. Rosalie gave me an encouraging smile as I stepped out of the black Ferrari to face my future for at least the next three years (depending on how fast I was going to grow anyway), "Forks High School".

I breathed in the fresh air. Ugh bad idea. The scent of blood was overwhelming. I closed my eyes for a second. If only Alice and Jasper were here they would be so useful right now. Jasper would be able to relieve the butterflies in my tummy and Alice would be able to see if I would lose control and feed on someone. Unfortunately they were away on one of their hunting trips. I rolled my eyes and started walking towards the school taking a final glance at my family behind me, encouraging me.

I put on my most cheerful smile and headed for the office. I heard a chime-like sound as I pushed the door open. Weird. I've never heard that before. Some trite human thing perhaps. The woman and the desk (Mrs Cope I presume) greeted me with a skeptical-yet-welcoming smile. I slipped my student profile on the desk. She looked through it and her eyes widened "Renesmee Carlie CULLEN?" she asked stressing on the "Cullen". I simply nodded and smiled tentatively at her. She continued to stare at me waiting for an explanation. I certainly was not in the mood for o a conversation so I quickly put the thought that I was Carlisle newest adopted child in her head. A look of understanding appeared on her face.

"Are you perhaps also adopted by Dr. Carlisle Cullen?" she asked. I simply nodded again. She suddenly realized what she was paid to do and explained to me all the school blahblahblahs. I thanked her warmly and heard her mumble something about Cullens and good looks before the door closed behind me.

As I walked across the car park and into the hallways of Forks high. I realized something peculiar about the way the humans walked. It just seemed so "calculated" and clumsy even, somehow to me it wasn't exactly graceful and to my surprise practically everyone around me walked that way. I guess they must somehow be curious about how I moved too as they all stared right back at me.

"New girl?"…."Who IS that?"

I tried as hard as I could to tune out all the human whispers I could hear as clear as crystal and looked down as I walked, self-conscious. Discreetly I tried to "rearrange" the way I walked so it would match that of the humans. I found my locker and gracefully opened it and placed my "books" (which were simply props as how daddy put it. As I already knew all there were to know about high school

education in Forks). I could tell from the corner of my eyes people were still staring. Gosh, just leave me alone I'm just a newbie.

As I neared my classroom I unintentionally overheard two boys talking, "Aww…Come on, no girl registers a perfect 10…"

I stepped into the classroom and passed the teacher who was rearranging his files on the table, the slip.

"Well SHE does" I heard one of the boys say again.

I turned around and realized to my horror everyone in the class was staring at me, the boys, their mouths gaping open. Well so much for my low-profile.

But something else attention. There was a boy sitting in the back row of the class all alone. He had a black hoodie on and dark shades. Shades in Forks? I was perplexed. He looked up and stared at me with the most peculiar expression. Those few seconds felt like hours and I felt as though it was just me and him in that class. Then he looked away breaking me out of my dazed-state. The confused expression did not leave his face.

"Renesmee?" the teacher called. I spun around and smiled at her, showing no hint of my previous mixture of emotions. "You may sit next to Demi" she continued gesturing towards a girl with huge specs and hot pink braces bouncing up and down in her seat excitedly, probably because she was the only one - well only OTHER one - without a seat mate.

Somehow I felt contented with my seat and walked toward it. Being careful not to look at the last desk at the back of the class…


	2. Intruder

I was still thinking about that weird encounter as I walked out of the building that was forks high school but all my worries seemed to evaporate when I saw my best friend waiting for me in his shiny new metallic blue Lamborghini.

"You know.." Jacob started as I approached, "I think I almost forgive Emmett for thrashing my rabbit" and he grinned at his shiny new toy.

"Haha yeah the car Emmett accidentallyonpurposely thrashed" I laughed as I got into his car, ignoring the stares once again.

The car purred into action but did not move.

"Haha don't tell me you're enjoying other people staring at your car in pure jealousy?"

I looked up when he did not reply. His dark eyes were far away. I looked out but saw nothing particularly significant.

"Jake? Hey." I punched him in the shoulder "what is it?"

"Nothing." he replied absently.

Something about the look on his face stopped me from questioning further.

"So." Jacob began attempting to lighten the mood. "you up for it today? Or are too tired from SCHOOL" he asked stressing the last word like it was a disease.

"Oh shut up Jake. You're just jealous you can't go to school because you're frozen at the age of 16! Of course I'm up for it" I rebutted.

Jacob grinned exposing his pearly white row of teeth, clearly amused and was chuckling all the way to the field in the middle of the forest where the rest of my family were already waiting.

"HEY they're here!" Seth exclaimed in excitement as we approached. And just as

I expected everyone flooded me with "how-was-your-first-day-at-school" and I simply held out my hand and said jokingly "what do you THINK it was like? It's not like everyone here has never had a first day of school before. Some of you have even had at least twenty 'first-days-of-high-schools'"

I smiled and glanced at my vampire family. They were smiling knowingly.

"OKAY lets stop this babbling and go play some ball" Emmett's booming voice interrupted.

He passed me a bat and I saw the sides of his mouth twitch as he tried to hold back laughter. I stared at him skeptically and simply stood at my spot to bat.

I should have known.

As soon as I swung and hit the baseball with the bat. It bent distortedly out of shape. Emmett burst out laughing while everybody else stared in shock with the mouths hanging open before following suit.

"Emmett!" I cried "this is a 'human' bat!" and then I started chuckling myself.

"Yeah for a half human! haha"

"Ha-ha very funny you never get enough cracks about my half 'human-ness' do you?" I replied sarcastically.

I saw my mother eyeing Emmett disapprovingly, but with amusement in her perfect features.

Afterward we continued playing a few more games - thankfully with proper equipment – before my grandmother (or rather Esme, the term 'grandmother does her no justice) announced that it was getting dark and I needed my rest for school tomorrow.

Oh joy. I forgot. School.

I groaned but I knew I wouldn't be able to play another game without zonking out.

My father naturally mind-read this and lifted me up to give me a piggyback ride home.

"Your lucky your father is a vampire you're getting pretty big" he laughed lightheartedly ad I rested my cheek on his cold shoulder too tired to argue.

"Hold on tight" he said. And I wrapped my arms around his marble shoulders. It was quite routine and I was used to it but somehow I was so tired my mother had to occasionally support me to keep me from falling over and she ran alongside my father.

When my father rested me on my bed (my old cot banished for good) and my mother tucked me in, I only managed to touch their cheeks and whisper a "goodnight I love you" in my mind before I dozed off.

I didn't realize it but there was a thunderstorm outside.

My eyes flickered open. It was too swift a movement for human eyes to catch but I caught a glimpse of a pair of red eyes that had been staring at me as I slept.

I screamed. Wide awake now.

Almost immediately my parents were by my side.

"Renesmee honey what's wrong? Did u have a nightmare" my mother cooed.

I shook my head frantically. I knew what I saw. "Oh momma! There was someone at my window and whoever it was he or she had bright red eyes!"

My mother looked up at my father worriedly but he turned to me and looked at me reassuringly as he repeated what my mother has said "just a nightmare"

But I saw his jaw tighten ever so slightly as he saw the whole thing in my mind.

"Don't worry Renesmee, we'll stay here with you tonight" my mother reassured me as my father started humming a lullaby - _my_ lullaby.

"I knew what I saw." I whimpered, hardly audible before drifting into and uneasy sleep.


	3. 1 week later

1 week later

"And THAT is Evanna, she thinks she owns this place" Demi complained. "Like HELLO. You're not the boss of me" Demi did a perfect bimbo imitation and rolled her eyes.

I scanned the cafeteria as Demi went on about the popular kids in school. My eyes rested on a girl sitting all alone at the back of the cafeteria, reading a small crimson red book. Her fringe practically covered half her face. Her eyeliner was so thick I couldn't see any part of her eyelids that wasn't black and her lips were black too. In other words, she was practically covered in black stuff.

_Jeez _if word were to leak out that there was a vampire (or half vampire anyway) in this school, she'll be the prime suspect no doubt. I chuckled to myself and the sound of my giggle that rang like chimes broke me out of my daze.

I realized Demi had stopped talking and all the girls in the proximity of my eyesight, which is practically everyone, had turned to stare at one direction, one subject – him.

He sauntered into the cafeteria ignoring the stares as if they weren't even there. His dark reflective shades prevented anyone from seeing his eyes but even then, I could still see from the set of his chiseled jaw line that he was perfectly unaffected by the stares.

He walked past our table and for the first time I got a real good look at him. He was slightly taller than me, chiseled jaw, shiny black hair that touches his collar, spiky at the top and a fringe that touches his arched eyebrows.

No wonder. Typical human perception of "HOT."

I watched him as he grabbed an apple and went straight out the cafeteria door. As soon as he left the silence ceased and the excited murmur of teenage girls filled the air.

And to think they were at least 9 years older than me technically.

"And THAT'S Joseph. No one knows his last name. Its like he's some god who fell from the sky or something" Demi stated trying to sound indifferent but giving it away as she sighed at the end.

Not her too.

But there was something about this Joseph that intrigued me.

Strangely, he was absent for all of the classes for the rest of the day… Not that I cared of course.

I walked up to my locker and slid all my "props" ,a.k.a school books, into it. I shut the locker and started walking down the hallways - and stopped.

I might not have eyes behind my back my I could feel the stare burning right into me.

My eyes narrowed.

I turned around first slowly and then at the last moment, quickly.

Just quick enough to notice him look away and walk in the opposite direction. His movements were so swift I started wondering if they were even a mere pigment of my imagination.

"Hey Nessie are you going for the camp?"

"Yeah" I answered absently, barely hearing Demi as her voice faded into the background.

I stared right back at Joseph who was already walking away, my eyebrows furrowing. I pried my eyes away from him to face Demi once again.

"Huh? You were saying?" I asked, unconsciously shaking my head to clear my mind.

Demi sighed loudly and continued "Well newbie" she said, chuckling, "A few years ago the school implemented this system whereby there would be a camp for all students at the beginning of every new year."

"Where is it?"

Considering what had happened last week there was no way my parents were going to let me go too far away from home.

"La push I think" Demi added.

A smile spread across my face.

"I'll be there"


	4. Drive Home

My father has been picking me up from school recently and Jacob has been sitting in the back seat, pissed off at the fact that he can't drive his awesome car. Knowing his paranoid nature and what happened the previous week, I didn't blame him.

I closed the door behind me as I entered the silver Volvo, rolling my eyes at the girls swooning about my "hot brothers" in the car.

My dad noticed the situation and chuckled.

"So how was your day today?" He asked, turning to look at me although the car was going at at least 200 miles per hour.

"It was…normal" I hesitated but I figured my dad would pick it out of my mind as soon as I thought it anyway. My dad was like my 'speed dial' my ability to send thoughts to people and his to read thoughts ultimately results in him being able to read me the easiest and me to send my thoughts to him the fastest.

"Well…there's this boy who really acts kinda weird. He stares…a lot." I muttered, the whole experience in the hallway coming back to me.

I knew he would be able to hear me even without me making a sound but I had a feeling my dad wanted me to say it out loud.

"Maybe he likes you." My dad said, his lips fighting a smile, knowing Jake was behind, "Already, three-quarters of the male population in Forks High School find you irresistibly attractive"

I heard Jake growl quietly from the backseat and I started chuckling too.

It wasn't like I did not understand the whole _imprinting_ thing. Its just that at this point of time, I do not feel that way for Jacob and neither does he.

We passed La Push as I was staring out the window and was suddenly reminded of the camp.

"When is it?" my father asked even before I could turn to face him.

"This weekend. Can I go?"

I saw his eyebrows furrowing for a split second before he rearranged his expression such that it was smug again.

"I thought you didn't like school?" he asked, amused.

"Well I thought maybe I should give it a chance, it's not so bad. I kinda like observing humans. It's interesting"

I chuckled as I saw my father nod and his topaz eyes look like they were looking far ahead, he was probably thinking of how my mother was when she was human.

"Time passes like a bullet train huh?" I added, attempting to end the silence.

He simply laughed and leaned over to ruffle my bronze locks and kiss me on the forehead as we pulled into the Cullen driveway.


	5. The camp

The Camp

I stepped out of my dad's silver Volvo and breathed in the familiar air of La Push. This was a rather unfamiliar part of La Push but it didn't really matter in which part of La Push I was in because Jake had said that he and his brothers would look out for me without interfering unless necessary.

Mrs. Kaplan, some random teacher, led us to our dorms where practically all the girls ran to dump their stuff on the upper deck beds. I, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less and simply took the last lower deck bed.

The activities for the first day were practically zilch as we only had a few hours left until sun down. So all I did was stare out the window, hoping to get a glimpse of Jake or Seth or anybody! for heaven's sakes before I die of pure boredom.

FINALLY though, we all got to go out for the campfire where we all sat in circle toasting marshmallows (while I chewed gum. As usual. Marshmallows taste like sponges dipped in baby powder. Ugh)

The camp counselors told stories about werewolves rumored to have roamed the forests of La Push centuries ago, while the girls shivered and squealed and the boys made howling noises (not even close if you ask me). All except for two. Joseph stared at the burning fire, which casted eerie shadow on his face and of course he was wearing shades, as usual. His expression either completely calm or just plain bored.

The other was the girl who dressed in black. Her hoodie was black and her long wavy hair flopped over her face. But I could still see her eyes though.

And they were staring right at me.

I know mom told me it was rude to stare, but I couldn't help myself. What the hell was her problem with me? What did I ever do to her?

She turned away and so did I. I then continued to listen to the ridiculous werewolf stories the camp counselors were telling, the whole full moon deal, werewolves feeding on children but they prefer teenagers (what?!).

Then there was a bloodcurdling (no pun intended) howl coming from the woods behind us. People started screaming, one girl cried and Demi's blue eyes widened.

Quil. I could recognize that cheeky wolf from anywhere. His howl was followed by a soft thud and embry's voice ("dude are you crazy?!) too soft for the human ears to pick up.

I chuckled.

A little TOO loudly. Everyone stared at me. The freaky girl in black stood up and pointed at me and said "UNBELIEVER." But that didn't bother me. What bothered me was that Joseph was staring right at me his expression, for the first time ever, fear.


	6. Moonlit Swim

Moonlit Swim

One of the disadvantages of being a half-vampire is having super hearing. Even the pillows on my ears can't drown out the murmurings from the other girls in the dorm. Fine, I'm a freak I'm a freak. Just let it go and go to sleep already! In a desperate attempt to shut them up I sent thoughts to all of them to forget about the incident and go to bed.

"Tired, Sleep" I thought over and over again.

At long last, they were all asleep.

"Phew" I thought. I felt kinda bad to take advantage of their human weakness like that but I was getting a headache and I hardly ever get headaches all my life!

I sat up. I tried to sleep but I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Joseph's face. Pure horror. If only I could use my vampire powers on myself then I would be able to get some shut-eye.

I sighed and headed out the door. I didn't exactly have to tiptoe though, I just had to make sure I moved swiftly enough.

I sat on a log at stared at the remains of the firewood for awhile. Oh boy the temperature was just weird. I guess it is probably because I'm so used to either being surrounded by beings with really low body temperatures or really high body temperatures.

I turned my head in the direction of the lake and contemplated. It was going to be cold I'm quite sure about that.

Oh what the heck I'm going to take a short dip nobody's going to notice anyway.

I quickly ran back in to change into my swimming suit and in a flash was standing on the jetty. Without a second thought, I closed my eyes any jumped into the cold water.

The cold restored a sense of normalcy to my world. I slowed down my breathing until it came to a stop and dived under. After about 15 minutes underwater I realized I wasn't alone. I looked straight ahead and realized to my horror there was a figure staring right at me about a kilometer away. I squinted but still couldn't make out who or what it was. Another disadvantage of being a half-vampire though, is not being able to see as well as a vampire when underwater.

I resurfaced for a few seconds and rubbed my eyes, but when I went back underwater, the figure was gone. I looked around me – nothing.

Suddenly something ice cold grabbed my arm from behind.

"MMMPH!" I cried trying to break free of its iron grip. It was impossible. There was only one possibility of something so cold and strong.

"Vampire" the voice in my head shouted.

I gasped and spun around.

Only to come face to face with bright amber eyes staring right into mine.

It took me awhile as I was in shock, but the face wasn't hard to recognize.

"Joseph?" I mouthed.

Far away in the woods I heard a wolf howl.


	7. Confrontation

Confrontation

Joseph flinched at the sound of the howl. But he did not loosen his grip on my arm. Instead he dragged me out of the water.

"Who are you?!!…WHAT are you??" he nearly shouted but suddenly remembered to keep his voice down not to wake up the sleeping campers.

I opened my mouth to explain but he wasn't finished.

"Your…your scent its all mixed up. Like a human's and yet u still somehow smell like a vampire…i..don't..unders…ugh! At first I thought you might be some human hanging out with the Cullen coven or something but just now that wolf! It definitely was no ordinary wolf. It was a werewolf! Natural enemies of the vampire! So help me here! Please..ex..Explain!" he stuttered.

For a moment there it sounded as if he had mistaken me for my mother.

"Joseph…"I started and bit my lip. "For one thing, you sure didn't make it clear who you were either so why don't we go sit over there (I pointed at the jetty) and we can settle this calmly..o..okay?"

At first he hesitated then he nodded.

Just then the wolf howled again more urgent this time. And then another one.

Joseph hissed, fearful.

I closed my eyes and sent out thoughts to all of them "let me do this. I can handle it"

Jacob growled in protest.

"Its okay Jake. I think he's harmless. He just wants some answers. Look if anything goes wrong then act okay? Just stay close"

Finally Jake stopped and there was silence.

Joseph was looking down. "Hey..erm sorry about the outburst I just got kinda…emotional I guess"

"Its okay" I smiled nervously.

"So…" he started "what's your deal?"

"Well…truth is, I AM a vampire…well sort of. A half vampire actually.. and half human."

Joseph looked at me, clearly amused. "Oh are you serious? Like your mom's human and your dad's a vampire or something?"

"Yeah" I nodded. "Not anymore though. My birth was kinda of too much for her too handle" I flinched at the memory. "So now she's a vampire too"

Joseph chuckled.

"What? you think I'm a freak too don't you?" I asked, getting pretty amused myself.

"Nononono. Its not like that. Its just..wow… abit hard to grasp I guess"

There was a few seconds of silence as I let him absorb the whole thing.

"Oh hey.." I started realizing something. "You mentioned the Cullen coven just now didn't you?"

"How did you know about that?" I asked.

Joseph shifted uneasily "Well, erm, that's kinda why I'm here"

I looked at him questioningly.

Joseph opened his mouth to speak and then seemed to hesitate for a second before he continued, "Well…I kinda ran away from my coven. There's just this part of me that feels kinda…guilty…you know for drinking erm human blood"

I kept quiet and let him continue.

"But…it was harder than I expected…sometimes…sometimes I slip. But I try really hard not to. I guess I need help with this thing and that's why I decided to come here when I heard about your family. I did some "research" on my own and found the location. Which also explains why my…well..eyes are this colour"

I nodded in silence, quite surprised by what I heard. A bloodsucking vampire, HUMAN blood, decides, by his own will and against his coven, to give up human blood. It sure was very rare.

"But hey" I remembered, "How did u get past the wolves?" I wondered.

Joseph frowned and said "Now that was a bit of a problem. It really freaked me out when I found out there were werewolves guarding the area. But…uhh.. you do know right? That sometimes vampires have gifts? Do you?"

At first I felt slightly unsure about telling him, but I figured I could trust him and told him, " Yeah actually, I can send out and manipulate thoughts."

Joseph eyed me suspiciously.

"No. haha I'm not using it on you don't worry"

"Haha okay. Well as I was saying" he paused, "I have this gift. I can make myself invisible. Not literally though. It's something like what you can do only more specific I guess. I sort of, you know, mess with their heads, something like making them think they can't see me. Let their eyes play tricks on them. And so they can't."

"So if I don't think I can't see you, then can I see you?" I questioned.

Joseph shook his head. "I'm afraid it doesn't work that way I guess. I'm thinking it has something to do when I was still human"

I waited expectantly for him to go on.

"I was born in the 1920s in Paris, France. My family was poor and all of us had to take care of ourselves pretty much, I was the youngest. I wanted to earn some extra cash so I did magic on the streets to entertain people. (chuckles) I don't know how I did it, I guess it was a gift or something but I was just better than everybody else."

Joseph swallowed.

"That was when I started noticing him. There was always this man who would watch me from a distance. He was always somewhere I was when I was doing my magic tricks. And he had these red pupils that kinda freaked me out."

"Joseph are you okay?" I asked when he suddenly closed his eyes, his face contorted with pain.

"I can still remember how it felt." He suddenly said.

"What did?" I asked, confused.

"That man, my creator, he took me just like that, away from my family, away from…everything and just (he cringed) changed me." Joseph said his eyes far away.

"He took me to his family – my NEW family - and he never allowed me to go out alone. But one day I managed to beg him let me to go back to Paris just for a visit and he allowed it so easily…I should have known. My family, everyone I knew, was just...already gone. I guess I just…lost track of time" Joseph looked down.

For a few moments, no of us said anything. I took awhile to take it all in. Who would have known. This boy who every girl in school wanted to be with, the one that, on the surface, just appeared to be the type that would sit down at starbucks for hours and write poetry, was actually just a vampire who got sick of his sadistic life, a life that he never asked for.

"Renesmee?" Jacob's voice broke me out of my daze, "we should go back in and pretend we're asleep, its nearly dawn"

"Yeah you're right" I agreed.

We were walking towards our dorms when I remembered something, "Hey Joseph, next time you feel curiosity towards me just ask me okay? Haha don't go sneaking around my bedroom window anymore." I told him, remembering the incident a few nights ago.

"Erm…Renesmee…I.. never went near your house"


	8. Jealousy

I swallowed. Hard. I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming out loud. If it wasn't Joseph then who was it then? It has to be a hallucination of some sort. Some nightmare that I had.

It HAS to be.

"Reneesmee, you okay?" Joseph asked, noticing my discomfort.

"Uhuh..." I lied, "just thinking about something. It's nearly dawn, let's go in" I continued, shielding my emotions with a smile.

I decided to try to ignore the strange instinct that something bad was coming and told no one what I just discovered.

For the next few days of the camp, I hung out with Joseph a lot and we were really becoming fast friends, considering everyone else thought I was a freak now. I couldn't care less though and neither could Joseph. People have been talking about us a lot, thinking we can't hear them. It was quite funny though, Joseph and I had a ball of a time joking about it. These mortals were whispering but to our ears, it was as if they were screaming into our faces.

But the strange thing was, ever since I told him to let me handle the situation with Joseph a few days back, Jacob has not made a sound. I suppose that means he agrees with me that Joseph was harmless enough and approves of our friendship right?

Wrong.

It didn't take me long to find out though.

I expected to see my dad waiting at the school parking lot for me but instead Jake was there leaning against his Lamborghini with a peculiar expression on his face.

"Hey Jake! I missed you!" I chuckled giving him the usual bear hug but when he didn't respond or hug back I instantly felt that something was amiss but ignored it.

I cleared my throat "Erm this is my friend Joseph remember? I guess he kinda gave you a wrong first impression but he was just freaked out that's all...rig..right Joe?"

I stopped babbling. They were eyeing each other intently. Joseph's expression a mixture of confusion and apprehension while Jake looked plain angry, his muscular jaw flexing and unflexing.

"Stay away from her you hear me?" Jake whispered to Joseph commandingly in his alpha tone, "I don't ever want to see you within a 500 metre radius of her."

"Wha..?!" I started but Joseph interrupted me.

"Too bad your alpha tone doesn't work on me. But fine if that makes you happy, I'll stay away. I don't want to create a scene here" Joseph hissed back.

He touched my hand briefly, a gesture of goodbye and stalked off.

I realised there was a crowd starting to form a few metres behind us and once again more whispers about us, only this time it wasn't funny anymore. I only managed to catch "boyfriend" and "rival" and when I heard "two-timing slut" I stopped paying attention. I certainly didn't want to be charged with homicide.

I took a deep breath a got in the car. I didn't want to say anything until we were a safe distance away from those prying schoolmates of mine. I managed to catch a glimpse of Demi before we drove off.

She was holding a skinny looking boy by his collar and I heard her retort "Don't you dare talk about my friend like that and by the way you probably don't have a chance." I gave her a quick 'thank-you' look and quickly turned away. I had another thing to deal with.

I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming. "JACOB BLACK! What the hell was that?! How could you do that to him? He meant no harm and he was the good guy Jake! He could even help us out someday!" I started and at first he was silent and then he spoke - shouted rather.

"So this is about him is it?! Is he really that important to you?! So important that you can trust him just like that huh? What? Are you THAT infatuated with him Nessie? Oh yeah I know, he is good-looking isn't he? And he is YOUR type isn't he huh? miss HALF-VAMPIRE??"

I just stared at him. My view getting glassy and blurry. I certainly wasn't the crying-sensitive type but Jacob's jap really hurt. Somehow he managed to turn the issue around and made it my fault. No, not just my fault, it was as if he was blaming it on my existence as a half-vampire. Even when he knew I wasn't exactly thrilled about being different and not fitting in anywhere.

"Well I'm sorry I can't change who I am. So why don't you go find yourself a she-wolf best friend you jerk. Yeah she probably wouldn't think you stink and she probably wouldn't go around making friends with any of those repulsive sweet-smelling things...wait what are they called? Oh yeah! Vampires."

I did not have time to see his reaction as I opened the door of the speeding car and jumped out.

I landed on my feet and ran into the woods. Towards my place of refuge - my dad's meadow.

I heard the car screech to a halt in the background and my name being called but I just ran faster.

Suddenly I felt like I felt like I being watched and slowed my steps to a stop. I spun around but nobody was there.

I closed my eyes and listened. . .there was indeed something moving around me. It wasn't an animal – it was way too fast.

It stopped right behind me. I swallowed a turned around quickly in a crouching position but it moved again except his time I caught a glimpse of a white cloak before it disappeared out of my sight.

I flexed my jaw and realised I was breathing heavily. What was that?

I turned around and walked smack into Jacob's rock hard chest.

"Ow." I mumbled.

"Nessie. Please. I swear I didn't mean it that way. Please forgive me" Jake said gripping my wrist.

"Don't touch me." I ordered sternly, pushing his hand away.

I didn't feel as mad but I didn't feel like forgiving him for hurting my feelings just yet.

"I'm walking home" I mumbled to him and walked ahead.

I couldn't even hear his footsteps or the cracking of leaves as he walked silently behind me but I could feel his presence.

I took out the mp3 player my dad had given me for my first birthday and put on the headphones to reduce the awkwardness.

After a while, I glanced at Jacob and realised he was looking down as he walked, an unfathomable expression on his face I couldn't decode. He was obviously thinking hard about something.

I wonder what.


End file.
